Easter dinner

As it turned out, nobody in my bible study group had plans for Easter so we decided that we (and our other halves) should get together for Easter dinner. Lulu and Bill said they'd make the ham so the rest of us brought sides. I made roasted asparagus and deviled eggs (made with ranch dressing and bacon) and the boy brought a selection of meads. Kari was kind enough to host - mainly because Bill & Lulu are moving in 5 days, our house isn't big enough, and Paul & Sheila had company.

Since Paul & Sheila had company (their son Kyle and his partner Joey) they only came over for drinks, but the boys made sure to try some of Chris' mead that they'd heard all about;

For dinner we had ham, scalloped potatoes, pineapple souffle, asparagus, and rolls. It was all delicious, and because we had less people eating than we thought, we ended up with a mega bag of leftover ham. Chris had the biggest smile on his face as he cradled his bag o' ham. We had a lovely evening full of old people conversation, just like we like it!

Fashion Maven

Chris and I each had $10 in Kohls cash which we went to spend tonight and since I wasn't wild about anything I found for myself, I donated my $10 towards Chris' bad fashion ideas;

Fancy hats and fancy pants. And yes, I am regretting my decision to be an enabler.

My Friday in photos

My Friday went a little bit like this...

A gluten free raspberry coffee cake from my newest Taste of Home magazine.

Gluten free Mt. Lassen pizza (pepperoni, sausage, and olives) at Woodstock's downtown.

Rockin' fur lined women's vests at the thrift store.

Fancy Grocery Outlet Easter decorations.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We may not be having corned beef and cabbage today, but at least one of us remembered to wear green while the other celebrated with Guinness and a wife-beater;

Happy St. Patrick's Day - may your houses be full of the stink (cabbage) and drink of the season!

Chubby Company

We've got a house guest this weekend and her name is Chubs;

She insisted on bringing Wilson with her, but then again, we realize how hard it would be for Chubs to reach the gas pedal without her. We're cat sitting this evening while Wilson spends her night watching crappy zombie movies with Raquel. Not that Chubs has missed her since she hasn't budged from the back sliding glass door screen since she woke up this morning. Chubs is intently interested in this thing called the "backyard" which is full of birds and other cats.

We kind of cheated on St. Patrick's Day and ate our corned beef and cabbage tonight instead. I was just going to heat up leftovers for tomorrow until I realized that I didn't buy a corned beef big enough for that many servings so Wilson will get nothing and like it! Instead I'll be making bacon and cheese stuffed chicken breasts with parmesan rice and green beans. Good, just not very Irish.

Bring on the gifts

For our anniversary gifts I always try to stick with what the traditional anniversary themes are. As if "wood" for 5 years wasn't difficult enough, 6 years is "iron" as the traditional gift with candy being the modern gift. I did order an iron gift, but it wasn't here in time so today Chris only gets to enjoy the "candy" part of the gift along with some gratuitous beer.

He's lucky he got anything though since I had a dream last night that we were getting divorced because he was getting back together with his ex-girlfriend, Gisele Bundchen (aka Mrs. Tom Brady). My dream was about Chris helping me move back into my old apartment, that apparently I'd held on to for the last 7 years, and Gisele coming over and trying to make friends with all of our friends and I wasn't having it!! So, in appropriate fashion, I got a text this morning during church that Tom Brady had stopped by and dropped off this;

Damn straight! Now I can spend the rest of the day forgetting about my horrible dream with the help of a whole bottle of Moscato!

Almost our anniversary

Tomorrow is our 6 year anniversary and in celebration we went out to dinner tonight since the place we wanted to go isn't open on Sundays. This year we chose the Red Tavern on the Esplanade based on some friends' recommendations and they weren't wrong - it was fabulous! We got there right when they opened at 5:00 pm and asked to sit out back where we had the whole place to ourselves, though they did warn us of mosquitoes and gave us our own complementary bottle of Off.

We started off our evening with some drinks and a plate of buffalo frog legs. They were lightly battered and fried frog legs with a mild buffalo sauce to dip them in plus a side of carrot salad. Very tasty.

For dinner I got the Thai vegetable curry and the boy got the New York steak which came with sweet potato mashers, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale onion rings, mushrooms, and a brussel sprout fonduta which was like a warm brussel sprout slaw that he loved.

I only got bit four times by mosquitoes, so overall a success. We each brought home leftovers so we'll be dining in style for lunch tomorrow.

After our tasty dinner the boy surprised me with an impromptu trip to the thrift store on Esplanade. Apparently after spending $90 on dinner he could only afford thrift store duds, but I persevered and scored myself a Gap skirt and a Banana Republic skirt even though what I really wanted were the mesh cargo pants and the picture frame with somebody else's family still in it. And that's how you celebrate 6 years!